1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an electronic musical instrument, and more particularly to such an electronic musical instrument in which rhythmic tones can be programmed and/or produced in accordance with manipulation of keys of a keyboard.
2. Prior Art
There has been proposed an electronic musical instrument with a keyboard in which tone sources of rhythmic tones are selectively driven in accordance with manipulation of keys of the keyboard to produce rhythmic tones. In such conventional electronic musical instrument, a group of keys among the keys of the keyboard are manipulated to selectively designate the rhythmic tone sources, and a specific one of the keyboard keys or a specific switch is manipulated to give the rhythmic tone to be generated an accent (or stress). The group of keys can be selectively manipulated designating the rhythmic tone sources so that data representative of a rhythm pattern according to the key manipulation is stored in an associated memory. A rhythm may be played in real time by manipulating the group of keys for selectively designating the rhythmic tone sources (so-called "hand percussion" or "keyboard percussion").
With the conventional electronic musical instrument, however, since only one specific key is provided for giving an accent to each rhythmic tone in spite of the fact that the group of keys for designation of the rhythmic tone sources include a relatively large number of keys, two hands must be used when the key for designating a desired one of the rhythmic tone sources is disposed far apart from the specific key for giving an accent. Difficulty has therefore been encountered in playing a rhythm of a high tempo or a syncopated rhythm.